Raiko Yokomon
by ali's-grrl-45
Summary: *FINISHED* well, one of Kenshin's partner/girlfriends has come back...but this time to kill him? why? READ AND FIND OUT! pleez R&R!
1. chapter 1

Mini Prologue  
  
"Kenshin, where are you going?" I called, but he just kept walking. I followed him, just about tripping over something. I stopped, bent down and picked up the Battousai's sword.  
  
"Kenshin, you forgot your-"I looked up, but he had disappeared, "sword." I stood in the same spot, staring after him until the police came, and then I was gone.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
My name is Raiko Yokomon. I am a Legendary Manslayer, but am known as "The Devil". I can be recognized by my black, red clothing, my always bloodstained hands, blond hair, and a scar identical to the one Battousai has, except on one of the point of the scar, is a star. I have vowed to find and kill my once partner and lover, Hitokiri Battousai, the Legendary Manslayer. Although, I know him as Kenshin Himura.  
  
I am walking the cold, winter streets of Tokyo, people avoiding me as they walk by, and the police trying to stop me, but my dagger-like glare makes them back down. In my mind I go over the basic moves of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu style, the style I had learned from my partner. I am the only one carrying a sword, a real sword, at that. I look into peoples windows and see little boys playing with wooden swords. How I would love to be gripping my own sword right now.  
  
My attention turns to a teenager with black hair, wearing a yellow shirt with green pants, who is walking towards me. He obviously has no idea who I am. He bumps into me, and takes my purse. No one else would notice. I grab his wrist with my left hand, and draw my sword in lightning speed. His brown eyes stare at me in terror, and he offers the purse back to me. I snatch it back then throw him to the ground.  
  
"Don't do it again, boy," I say, sheath my sword, and then continue my search. I hear him get up and see him run back past me, but then he stops in my path and draws a wooden sword.  
  
"No one treats me like that!" he yells at me, pointing his "sword", "And I'm not a boy!" I laugh.  
  
"And one like you should not be stealing. You can get a job just as well in any of these stores," I scoffed, waving my hand in the direction of the restaurants. A girl in a kimono with black hair runs up to him, and tries to drag him away.  
  
"Yahiko, come on! This girl's a killer!" she pleads, her eyes fearful.  
  
"Kaoru, leggo!" Yahiko yells, trying to shove her away. I draw my sword again, but out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash of red hair behind Kaoru. It's Kenshin.  
  
"Hitokiri Battousai!" I yell after him. He turns and I continue,  
  
"It is I, Raiko Yokomon, your former student and partner in the revolution. I have sworn an oath to find and kill you. I shall do so here and now!" He pays me no attention, so I run ahead of him and block his way, sword pointed at his throat. Kenshin tries to avoid my eyes as a crowd of people form around us. Women rush children inside, not wanting them to see blood. The world seems to be staring at us.  
  
"You will die! You will!" I rush at him, sword screaming for blood. His piercing glare turns on me, and he whips out his Sakabatou. I jump over it and bring down my own at his neck, but his god-like speed saves him and he escapes me the same way he did ten years before.  
  
"Gimmie some sake," I demanded, sitting down on one of the stools at a restaurant. The waitress hesitated, then when I gave her a "death stare" she hurried into the back to fetch my drink. The men sitting next to me got up and moved. The waitress came back with the cup and pitcher and poured it for me.  
  
"Thanks," I said, smiling. She gave a weak smile, then attended to the other customers.  
  
I started thinking about Kenshin and my oath. Why was I going to kill him? Oh yeah, he ran away without me knowing where he was going. I don't know why, either. Some say he didn't want to kill anymore, so he ran away. I poured more sake and sipped it slowly, then, draining the cup, paid and left.  
  
I had heard that there was house open for rent in a place called "Ruffian Row". I didn't have trouble finding the place: it was broken down and filled with trash, with a sign out front that said, "For Rent". I asked who the landlord was, and was directed to an old, English looking building. I stepped inside.  
  
"Hello?" I called. I heard a chair scrape at the stone floor, then footsteps. I waited patiently until an Englishman stood at the top of the staircase in front of me.  
  
"What do you want?" he asked, leaning against the banister.  
  
"I wish to rent out that house," I said. He shrugged.  
  
"You can have it for all I care," he said, "It's infested with rats and hasn't been lived in for years. Some say it's haunted because fights took place in there. Lots of people died." he ended in a whisper. I laughed.  
  
"Do you think I'm scared of a little ghost? I've killed lots of people-" I drew my sword out just a little so the cold metal gleamed in the candlelight, "-and they all haunt my dreams. I'm not scared," I said with mockery.  
  
"Then it is yours," the man turned and walked back inside the room he had come from.  
  
I returned to the vacant house and started cleaning it out. As I began washing the windows, I noticed some writing on the wall to the left. I turned to look at it directly and gasped. In blood, the warning, "Upon the third ringing of the bell, you will die" was written on the wall.  
  
"Someone's trying to scare me." I muttered, scanning the room, then continued scrubbing the salty residue off the window. When I had finished, I looked back at the wall just in time to see the words disappear into the wall.  
  
I stared at the spot until the moon shone. It seemed to shake me out of my daze, because then I swept out a spot on the floor, pulling my mattress and blanket from my bundle, laid down and fell asleep, not paying attention to the running footsteps outside.  
  
I awoke the next day in a cold sweat. I had a dream of the boy, Yahiko, with a dagger. Then, as he brought it down of someone, the image of blood filled my eyes until I awoke. I returned to my work that I had started the night before.  
  
As I picked through the rubble, I discovered several disembodied limbs, as well as a bloody skull, which I decided to keep as decoration. The rest of the junk I pushed outside into the alley behind the house to be collected by the garbage men or just to sit there and rot.  
  
"Hello?" Someone calls. I rush to the door to see a tall man with dark brown hair, and wearing a white shirt that on the back says, "Bad".  
  
"What?" I say in a monotone.  
  
"Uh, I'm looking for a.Raiko Yokomon?" he mumbles.  
  
"Yeah, I'm her," I state. He gets a surprised look on his face. I give him a look like, "You wanna say something or just get out of here?"  
  
"Uh."  
  
"Expecting a man? I know. Many have looked for me, thinking I was a man, but coo-coo-cachoo! I wasn't!"  
  
"My name is Sanoske Sagara. I have a friend who sent me to find you." I raised my eyebrows.  
  
"Who is your friend and what does he or she want?"  
  
"Well.His name is Kenshin-"  
  
"Kenshin?! Well, what does he want? Spit it out!" I commanded, drawing my sword. Sanoske took a step backwards.  
  
"He.he wants to meet you at-at the bridge between now and noon.he's already there."  
  
"Well, why didn't you say so before?!" I screamed, and took off towards the bridge.  
  
I saw him before I was even a yard away from the bridge. He was leaning on the railing, looking out at the town. Kaoru and Yahiko were there, too, looking every which way, probably for me.  
  
"There she is!" Kaoru yelled, her gaze locking onto mine. I reached the bridge, and stopped. I looked at Kaoru and Yahiko more closely to see that.they were crying? No. They couldn't be. If Kenshin knew they were this upset, he'd have reassured them that he would win this match and they wouldn't be crying at all.  
  
"Himura!" I called. Kenshin turned to look at me. Immediately, I noticed that he wasn't wearing his sword. What's he planning? I thought to myself.  
  
"I'm glad to see that you have come, that I am," he said.  
  
"Don't be a fool! I have come to kill you! You shouldn't be glad because of that!" I screamed, tightening my grip on the hilt of my sword.  
  
"I have not come to fight. First of all, I want to know why you want to kill me,"  
  
"Is it not obvious? You ran away from me, and you didn't say goodbye or anything! And.YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!" He took a step backwards. But I wasn't finished.  
  
"You also killed my whole family! They were probably one of your victims to attack! Or else, they got in you way and you had to kill them so you could get at the man you were stalking!" I could see his chest rise up and down in slow, heavy motions. Why was he breathing so heavily?  
  
"I.I had no idea." he whispered.  
  
"I have to take revenge for them by killing you! I didn't even know until the day after you left! Why did you run away?"  
  
"I.I had killed the fiancé of another woman that.that."  
  
"Spit it out!" I screamed, drawing my sword in a flash.  
  
".that I had fallen in love with." The words hit me like a train. I dropped my sword, and sank to my knees.  
  
"Also because I had killed your family.I knew you would try to kill me, that I did," he said.  
  
"Well, why didn't you just tell me? I would have taken it a lot easier if you hadn't just left me alone in Kyoto! Now, DIE!" I screamed, picking up my sword and running towards him.  
  
"HITEN MITZURUGI STYLE SOJO!" I shrieked, and made my move.  
  
"Kenshin!"'  
  
There was a spurt of blood, and he fell off the bridge into the icy waters below. 


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
"NO! Kenshin!" Yahiko shouted, rushing to the broken handrail, and I think he would've jumped in if Sanoske hadn't jumped in first.  
  
"Sanoske! Please, help Kenshin!" I saw tears rain down her face.  
  
"Ha! Do you really think that the Battousai would survive in these waters? No man can! They'd freeze to death!" I laughed scornfully, disappointed at their false judgment of how cold the water was.  
  
"I, on the other hand, have lived with nothing to keep me warm in fifty degrees below zero weather!"  
  
Their eyes turned on me in shock.  
  
"What?! That's impossible!"  
  
"Not if you get used to it!" I finished, and jumped into the water to find the bodies.  
  
The current was strong, so I had to swim down a ways. There, I saw that it was I who was wrong. Hitokiri Battousai could survive. I gritted my teeth and swam over to him and Sanoske, who had passed out. I slashed at Kenshin's hand, put the water made my aim off.  
  
Darn it! I thought, I'll have to drag them ashore and finish him off there! I grabbed Kenshin's wrist and swam upstream with power I did not know I had. I flung him and Sano onto the bank of the river, then scrambled up myself.  
  
Kenshin lay there like a rag doll. His body trembled, and he was breathing fast. He was going to die of natural causes, but I didn't care. Just as long as he died.  
  
I held the tip of my sword to his throat, creating a little speck of blood on his neckline.  
  
"But.why."  
  
"Now, don't you start protesting, you hear?!" I screeched, "I am going to kill you right here!"  
  
"I.I thought.you."  
  
"I don't love you anymore! After what you did, I can never forgive you!"  
  
".stop.live."  
  
"That's enough!" I yelled, putting more pressure on my blade, "I don't want to hear any more from you!"  
  
He opened his eyes.  
  
"You're.you're more beautiful.than I.I remember." he whispered with a smirk. I jumped backwards, falling back into the water. My heartbeat was fast.  
  
He does not.No.  
  
I snapped my eyes closed. Tears were starting to leak from in between my eyelids.  
  
What am I doing? I'm supposed to be killing him, remember? A little voice inside me screamed, but I screamed back, I DON'T CARE! He still loves me! I can sense it! I just know he does!  
  
"Maria." Kenshin whispered. I snapped my eyes back open. No one had called me my real name since.since.  
  
"Maria, I did not mean to kill your family. I had mistaken them for another family I was supposed to kill. I'm so sorry, that I most surely am," he cooed, hugging me close. I kissed his neck, telling him that I believed him.  
  
I heard the bell chime.One.Twice.Three times for three o' clock.  
  
Wait a minute." Upon the third ringing of the bell, you will die!" But that means-- 


	3. the so called epilouge

Epilogue (A/N: well.it's not what happened AFTER, but I didn't want to call it Chapter 3 cuz it was so short, so.here it is as the "Epilogue")  
  
I heard the sound of a blade whizzing through the air, and then extreme pain erupted throughout my body. I screamed, falling forward onto the ground.  
  
"Yahiko! NO!"  
  
"What.What have I done.?" I heard Yahiko whisper.  
  
I was turned over by Kenshin's hands. In the background I saw Yahiko, the stupid, stubborn, teenage boy holding a bloody dagger. Kenshin's eyes were brimmed with tears.  
  
I reached a hand up and touched the check with the scar on it. He touched mine with one hand, and held my free hand with his free hand.  
  
"Will you forgive me for loving Tomoe?"  
  
"Of course I will. Kenshin, I actually didn't want to kill you. I never did."  
  
"Maria.Raiko Yokomon.I love you."  
  
"I love you, too." I said, and just before I died, he kissed me. That was the happiest time of my life. 


End file.
